Congress clashes over piecemeal gun measure

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested that Democrats wouldn't be satisfied with "just one narrow tweak at the margins," even as Republican leaders in the Senate and House downplayed the possibility of action on anything else. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

Even a narrow gun measure is in danger of failing on Capitol Hill, amid sharp partisan divisions over how to respond to this month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled on Tuesday that his caucus may block the modest bipartisan proposal to improve — but not expand — background checks for gun purchases unless Republicans commit to voting on broader gun control measures.

Story Continued Below

But GOP leaders in the Senate and House downplayed the possibility of action on anything else — even as they face opposition from House conservatives to that small-scale plan if it lacks controversial concealed-carry provisions. The result is that even after a wave of broad public outrage, which has swept up NRA-supporting President Donald Trump, the odds are growing that Congress will produce nothing at all.

Senate Democrats stopped short of vowing to vote against the bill, which would encourage federal agencies and states to provide information on individuals’ criminal histories to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. But Schumer suggested that Democrats wouldn’t be satisfied with “just one narrow tweak at the margins.”

Simply passing the Fix NICS background-checks bill means “we won’t have kept our promise” to the survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting, Schumer told reporters Tuesday, hours after meeting students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who visited the Capitol for bipartisan meetings on gun control.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics

Email

By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

“Rather than just passing one narrow bill and moving on, we Democrats intend to push our Republican colleagues to have a real debate on gun safety,” Schumer added.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered no indication Tuesday as to what, if any, gun votes he would agree to tee up during a possible floor debate on the background-checks bill. Senate Republicans’ weekly conference meeting focused on school safety rather than guns, he told reporters.

“We ought to be able to harden those schools and protect our youngsters,” McConnell said, “so when they go into the schools, we know they will come out.”

Any broader gun debate would almost surely eat up Senate floor time next week, and Republicans were focused Tuesday on passing the narrow gun bill before the weekend.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Tuesday that lawmakers “can and we should discuss” universal background checks, but “that’s not a recipe for success this week.”

“What I want to do is make sure that we don’t go home this week without passing something,” said Cornyn, the bill’s sponsor. “And that one thing that we can do this week is pass Fix NICS.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday also threw cold water on the push for expansive new gun control measures.

“We shouldn’t be banning guns for law-abiding citizens” but “focusing on making sure that citizens who shouldn’t get guns in the first place, don’t get those guns,” Ryan told reporters.

The Wisconsin Republican touted a House-passed “Fix NICS” bill, but that measure also would allow gun owners with concealed-carry weapons permits in their state to take their firearms across state lines — an idea Senate Democrats roundly oppose.

Ryan wouldn’t say whether he would allow the House to decouple the two issues if the Senate passes Cornyn’s bill. If he does, he’ll win the ire of conservatives, who were promised by GOP leaders that wouldn’t happen.

Democratic aides declined to specify which proposals they would insist on considering, but Schumer said his caucus “at a minimum” wants to debate universal background checks — which was filibustered twice in the Senate after the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting despite bipartisan support.

And Schumer’s fellow Democrats sounded ready to back him in pushing for more than the Fix NICS bill. One of the caucus’ most politically vulnerable red-state incumbents, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), called the bill to improve federal gun record-keeping a “fig leaf.”

“It’s an important little step, but surely we can do more than the teeniest, tiniest steps right now,” McCaskill said. The fate of the background-checks bill “depends on whether they are going to allow us amendments.”

Other gun proposals Democrats are pitching include California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s updated version of the assault weapons ban, which also restricts high-capacity magazines. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told Politico on Tuesday that he is taking a fresh look at supporting that proposal after the Florida shooting.

“In light of this recent tragedy, I have to rethink” previous opposition to assault weapons limits that stemmed from the “definitional challenge” of crafting a ban that manufacturers couldn’t easily get around, Warner said in a brief interview.

Another Democrat who voted against an assault weapons ban in 2013, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, is also reconsidering his stance in light of the Florida shooting.

Beyond the ban, Feinstein is also working with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on a plan to raise the age limit for buying certain types of rifles from 18 to 21 that has drawn a few other GOP supporters. Trump has signaled he would consider a higher age limit, despite the NRA’s opposition, but many other Republicans are opposed.

“As part of a larger package, I could probably live with” raising the age for certain rifle purchases, Cornyn said. “The problem is, I don’t see how that would affect the outcome in this case or another case.”

Recalling an immigration debate that consumed a week of Senate floor time before ending in a bitter impasse, Cornyn said, “I don’t want to this to end up like DACA.”